Captain America Takes Potter Down

It’s hard to imagine any film taking down $834.5 million worldwide over the course of its first 10 days of release and having only one box office victory to show for it. But that seems to be the case here, Maniacs. Despite predictions to the contrary, Warner Bros. Pictures’ final installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2 was toppled in its sophomore frame this weekend by the incoming might of Paramount’s Captain America: The First Avenger.

The adaptation of the best-selling Marvel superhero jumped out to an early lead Friday by taking down $25 million over its first day and held onto the 1st place spot throughout, with an estimated bow of $65.8 million over its first three days. If the numbers stay at that mark or come in higher when tomorrow’s actual statistics are confirmed, it would mean that Paramount and Marvel Studios have just released the highest opening superhero pic of the summer, ahead of Thor’s $65.7 million premiere.

Even some Paramount executives are cautioning on that note by suggesting the estimate could drop by tomorrow. Still, it’s a victory and a decent domestic launch for the two studios with their budget at only $140 million in coin. It’s also the final comic adaptation to be co-distributed between Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios, with Walt Disney Pictures taking over the reins next year.

“When you look at these two properties [Captain America and Thor], you’ve now got a lot of momentum going into next summer’s Avengers,” Paramount vice chairman Rob Mooresaid.

The only international market where Captain America struck this weekend was Italian theaters, with the Chris Evans-led feature pulling in another $2.8 million.

Following in 2nd place is last weekend’s champion, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2. Experiencing a severe 72% drop over its second weekend, the final installment in Warner Bros. Pictures’ cash-friendly franchise conjured up only $48.0 million, a far cry from the record-breaking $169 million it grabbed over its first three days. The final Potter adventure did win the international box office race hands down for its second frame by pulling in another $121.3 million, increasing its foreign take to $560.4 million. As we say above, with both domestic and foreign combined, the release has $834.5 million after only 10 days of release. With that kind of launch, it’s certainly looking like it will outrace Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides for the top worldwide prize this summer. See the current standings down below.

The other new wide release for this weekend is Sony Screen Gems’ Friends with Benefits. The comedy which pokes fun at most romantic comedies managed to find the 3rd place spot in its debut by grabbing $18.5 million on 2,926 theaters across the states. The studio reports the opening audience consisted mostly of the female persuasion, with 62% of the gender making up its demographics. Screen Gems’ kept its budget low to the point of only $35 million and seems confident about its lasting power.

"This film will be around for the rest of the summer. The chemistry between Justin and Mila is great," Sony chief Rory Bruer said.

Paramount Pictures’ Tranformers: Dark of the Moon grabbed another $12.0 million in 4th place, increasing its domestic score to $325.7 million after 26 days of release. The $62 million it pulled in from oversea theaters, including a record-breaking $40 million bow in China, has propelled its worldwide box office to $882.4 million. Helped in large part by its 3D venues, the score means the third installment has become the largest grossing pic in the franchise ahead of the original Transformers ($709.7 mil) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($836.3 mil).

And the 5th place spot goes to Warner Bros. and New Line’s comedy, Horrible Bosses. The pic grabbed another $11.7 million on 3,104 theaters in its third frame, increasing its domestic cume to $82.4 million. Not a bad showing at all for the release which only cost $35 million to produce.

With the combined might of Captain America and Harry Potter, domestic revenues were up 18% this weekend over the same frame last year. Check out the rest of the top 10 and the global summer race numbers down below.

Rank

Movie

Weekend

Theaters

Average

Total

Budget

1

Captain America

$65.8 mil

3,715

$17,719

$65.8 mil

$140

2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2

$48.0 mil

4,375

$10,986

$274.1 mil

$200

3

Friends with Benefits

$18.5 mil

2,926

$6,323

$18.5 mil

$35

4

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

$12.0 mil

3,375

$3,556

$325.7 mil

$195

5

Horrible Bosses

$11.7 mil

3,104

$3,776

$82.4 mil

$35

6

Zookeeper

$8.7 mil

3,215

$2,706

$59.2 mil

$80

7

Cars 2

$5.7 mil

2,668

$2,146

$176.4 mil

$200

8

Winnie the Pooh

$5.1 mil

2,405

$2,138

$17.5 mil

$30

9

Bad Teacher

$2.6 mil

2,034

$1,278

$94.3 mil

$20

10

Midnight in Paris

$1.8 mil

621

$3,058

$44.8 mil

$30

Here’s how it looks right now. As you can see, Transformers 3 and the final Harry Potter installment are gaining steadily on Pirates 4. We shall see how everyone lines up in a month’s time.

COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

Color me surprised! Good for Cap! I love HP also, but I was really hoping Cap would have a great opening. Just REALLY surprised that HP didn't keep the #1 spot for at least two weeks. Can't wait to see it.

Cap was great! As good as Iron Man in my humble opinion!! The Avengers trailer at the end....well lets just say i had to change my pants once i got home! I want to go see it again. I just thought the movie had such great heart, action and you just cared about Steve Rogers and why he wanted to fight!

Cap was a good movie but it wasn't great. They wasted the Red Skull in making him your typical bad guy anyone could have played. They didn't utilize him in the manner he deserved and thus missed an opportunity to take the movie to the Iron Man level.

Overall I'm pleased but it could have been so much better, like most Johnston movies.

Captain America was a great movie. It deserved far better than the B- it received on this site. Personally I would give it an A-. I thought Thor was a pretty good movie, but this one was better. To be honest I don't even pay attention to the critic reviews on this site anymore, I pay attention to what the normal people say down below in the comments section.

I loved Cap and rank it amongst my all time superhero films. I also like that they focused on him and not his enemy as so many films tend to do, we know the bad guy when played well usually gets the juiciest scenes and lines. Well this was Captain America and not the Red Skull. This was Cap's moment, even though the film was an abridged version of his WW2 heroics we know that there's plenty of material in between for future sequels should they decide to do another period piece of flashbacks. I'm sure this won't be the last we hear from the Red Skull, nevermind Bucky.

HP is the first film to fall more than 100mil from weekend to weekend, still "the boy that couldn't keep first place" has nothing to be ashame of he's still racking it up.

My 1st choice next weekend is Capt America again, if I have time or I'm in the mood I may check out C&A. I think next week should be a tight race. I won't call it but if I had to bet I'd give the edge to C&A, fuck it it ain't like I have anything to loose I'm calling CAP for a repeat at the top. I can stand to be wrong once a year :)

My next must see is Rise of the Apes, I love everything I see about that movie

Last week wiseguy and I were the only ones certain Cap would knock Harry off the top of the mountain. I was hoping for $70 million, but $65 is a great opening for the film. I think the good reviews and good word of mouth the film's getting will bolster the films in the coming weeks.

The movie was fantastic on all levels...script, acting, effects, overall look...everything. After seeing it four times this weekend and letting the movie simmer in my thoughts a little, I have to put it just behind Superman as my favorite comic-based super hero movie. Evans really delivered a Steve Rogers we cared about and understood. Evans put away his normally cocky kind of persona. He became Steve Rogers. Really, the whole cast we just fantastic and the writers really gave the characters some depth. I have to disagree with Hobbs on his Red Skull comments. I thought there was just enough Schmidt storyline that we understood his motivations. Weaving was excellent as Skull. And Haley Atwell. Wow! Her in the red dress was breathtaking, but her character was so much more than eye candy. She mattered in the story.

The movie was well worth the 34 year wait, and it was great to be able to share the movie with my girl's kids. That's one of the best thing about these movies for me. The kids love reading my old issues of these characters (from the late 70s through the early 2000s) and then we talk about them and go to see the movies. It's an exciting time for those of us who grew up reading these stories long before there was anything other than some stiff animation or bad series/TV movies.